Hello all, I made an anonymous account to post this. I’ve worked in psych nursing for going on 8 years, I know we deal with mentally ill patients, who can and are psychotic, violent, aggressive, detoxing, sexually preoccupied etc but when is enough enough?
The department I work in is very secluded from the rest of the hospital. We help the patients when they first get to the hospital and complete their initial paperwork, and complete the assessments and medication reconciliation. Being that our department is the first the patients come to they are often angry/confused/psychotic and that’s about the time they find out they were pink slipped. I’m sure you can imagine how that goes.
My issue is the set up of the department I work in. Usually there are 2 of us, sometimes 3 but for 8 hours of the day, from early morning to mid morning there is only 1 staff member in this department that’s working with these patients as they come into the hospital.
Recently when another nurse and I were working, we had 2 patients down in the department with us already when a 3rd patient got dropped off to us. How the department is set up the patients are able to just walk back into where we are sitting (office setting and a lot of objects you don’t want psych patients to have).
Well while I was on the phone with pharmacy trying to get someone’s medications straight, the 3rd patient that got dropped off starts walking back to me, and I end up backed into a corner and grabbed in between the legs and on my arms while he keeps flashing his member. I was able to yell and my co worker came in and was able to distract him enough for me to get away and out to the main part of our department that is on camera. He was still chasing me but we were to get more staff down there and take him up to a different part of the hospital.
What should I do? I told my immediate supervisor and she said make sure we get him upstairs/out of the department but didn’t seem overly concerned. Should I email upper management? Even if we just had a half of a door into the department it would help persuade patients to not come back there into the office part. Am I being dramatic? Is this just expected in psych?
First, I'm very sorry that you had this horrible experience and it is ABSOLUTELY NOT YOUR FAULT!
1)You need to contact a lawyer, to see if you need to file a complaint with the police,
2) you will be traumatized by this experience whether you feel it now or not and you will need support mechanisms from professionals that your lawyer can get for you (out of the hospital network) because you don't know their agenda
3)you need to be compensated not just for the hospital placing you in the this position but they will be thinking of YOU in their future re complications and you need to protect yourself, your job and future possibilities. Also your lawyer would have your back re recommendations so this doesn't happen to others.
I hate to make these suggestions but you have to look out for yourself and future workers. This hospital obviously doesn't care, which generally means that you might be made a scapegoat. Someone has to be a victim here and the hospital does not want it to be them.
I'm really sorry this happened to you. To be honest, being assaulted after being left alone in an inpatient psychiatric facility ward (second actual assault in three months and another near assault in that time period) because of poor staffing decisions by management is why I left my previous job. I tried to return after the last assault, but the situation of being left alone or other staff facing being left alone on units with multiple patients kept happening. I just couldn't stomach it anymore. I was grabbed by the throat. It's just not safe. My supervisors and admin weren't concerned, either. After all, they weren't the ones on the unit.
Take care of yourself. Make sure you're safe. Know that this is not okay, it's not part of the job, and nothing will ever make it anyone's fault but those who fail to ensure the safety of their staff and those who behave this way. If they won't protect you, work elsewhere. It's not worth it.
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guest1163268
2,215 Posts
First, I'm very sorry that you had this horrible experience and it is ABSOLUTELY NOT YOUR FAULT!
1)You need to contact a lawyer, to see if you need to file a complaint with the police,
2) you will be traumatized by this experience whether you feel it now or not and you will need support mechanisms from professionals that your lawyer can get for you (out of the hospital network) because you don't know their agenda
3)you need to be compensated not just for the hospital placing you in the this position but they will be thinking of YOU in their future re complications and you need to protect yourself, your job and future possibilities. Also your lawyer would have your back re recommendations so this doesn't happen to others.
I hate to make these suggestions but you have to look out for yourself and future workers. This hospital obviously doesn't care, which generally means that you might be made a scapegoat. Someone has to be a victim here and the hospital does not want it to be them.
Good luck!